Susana Bernal, Researcher at CEAB-CSIC and Associate Professor at the Dept. of Evolutionary Biology, Biology and Environmental Sciences of Barcelona University (BEECA-UB).
December 13, 2017
"Biogeochemical reactors within Mediterranean headwater catchments"
Summary
Mediterranean catchments naturally experience marked changes in hydrological connectivity that can span from droughts to floods. Yet, our understanding of how this hydrological regime influences the cycling and transport of nutrients, nitrogen in particular, is still limited. In this talk, I will combine several studies to explore which landscape units within Mediterranean headwater catchments act either as nitrogen sources or sinks, as well as the hydrological processes and environmental conditions that switch on these biogeochemical reactors. An appetizer: this talk is mostly about riparian forests and streams, but your expectations might be wrong.
Biography
My research is focused on carbon and nutrient biogeochemistry in continental ecosystems, mostly forests and streams, with emphasis on understanding the intimate relationship between hydrology and biogeochemistry. I investigate the impact of hydrological extremes, global change, and historic perturbations of nutrient export from catchments, as well as the potential of riparian and stream ecosystems as natural filters of nutrients in natural and altered ecosystems. PhD in Biology (2006), Fulbright at Princeton University (2006-2009), Juan de la Cierva (2009-2012), JAE-DOC (2012-2014) and JIN-Researcher (2015-2018) at CEAB. My work is compiled in > 40 papers and book chapters and has been presented in > 60 congresses.
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